Comments on: UPDATE II: ‘Un-American Revolutions’ (Un-American America)

By: Stephen W. Browne

Stephen W. Browne — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:40:30 +0000

The oft-misquoted Edmund Burke chiasmus comes to mind, “I do not rejoice to hear that men may do as they please unless I know what it pleases them to do.”

By: Nebojsa Malic

Nebojsa Malic — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:34:30 +0000

Oh, Ilana, did you see Vox's column today? Seems like you two are on the same page, except you got there sooner.

By: Nebojsa Malic

Nebojsa Malic — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:30:22 +0000

One of the things I’ve been preaching (for lack of a better word) against for some time now is the notion that a man’s ideology automatically validates/invalidates everything he says. By all means, filter stuff through the prism of one’s beliefs. Ferguson is a confessed imperialist, so when he opposed imperial adventures one ought to listen a bit more carefully than if it were a Socialist Workers World Party official. But from automatically validating or invalidating one’s words based on his ideology, it’s a steep slippery slope to “he can’t do no wrong, ’cause he one of us.” Or worse yet, “he can’t do no right, he’s one of them folk.”

By: Frank Brady

Frank Brady — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:15:07 +0000

I doubt, Ilana, that anyone would ever confuse you with a neoconservative. That said, it seems to me that what the U.S. should do in light of events unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa is nothing. For more than a century our interventionism has produced nothing but cries for more intervention and endless involvement in endless strife.

Enough.

By: CompassionateFascist

CompassionateFascist — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 03:53:25 +0000

The Middle East uprisings, whether ultimately “democratic” or not, are at a minimum anti-corporate globalist. And, as such, useful. If the world’s #4 ranking military power, Israel, feels threatened by these events….that’s too bad.

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:07:48 +0000

Ilana, I would never accuse you (or myself) of supporting neocon interventionism even if we both agree that Ferguson’s skepticism on the Middle East “revolutions” is valid.

You are certainly correct about Jefferson’s (and Paine’s) love for French bloodletting. Stodgy old John Adams and Edmund Burke had the proper call.

One thing is a little misleading with Ferguson’s- the French revolutionaries and their “philosophes” were generally “educated” middle class (sons of lawyers, military officers, physicians) who decided to remake the world into 10 day weeks and other sorts of feckless silliness.

By: Mike Marks

Mike Marks — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:22:26 +0000

In some ways the uprisings across the middle east make me shudder. I’m all for freedom of the individual and the right to own private property, etc. However, it appears that some elements of these uprisings are no more than Sharia Opportunists. Eastern Europe is very different from North Africa and the Middle East. At least in Eastern Europe the Judeo Christian traditions had not been completely lost. The Middle East and North Africa have deep religeous roots in Islam. Representative government and radical Islam do not work well together. There are too many infidels to kill…

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 20:23:08 +0000

Well, Ferguson knows history better than 99.9% of Americans but his conclusions are to adopt the “John Mc Cain policy” which is the NEOCON INSANITY that has gotten us into numerous troubles in the past. As banal as Obama is, I haven’t a scintilla of Bush Cheney McCain nostalgia.

I reject the concept that the US should either be propping up all the Mubaraks or trying to undermine them with our CIA-anointed Karzais, Chalibis, Diems, Thieus, and other paid suckups. I fail to see how either course of action has anything to do with protecting the lives and freedom of Americans as opposed to playing “Global Messiah”. A Khadafy who threatens Libyans is THEIR problem, not my problem!

Ferguson also fails to note that the ideas promulgated in the American Revolution was based on a long history of the rights of Englishmen, coupled with a study of previous republics and Judeo-Christian ethics. The French Revolution relied on a bunch of semi-perverted philosophes such as Rousseau. The Soviet and Maoist Revolutions relied on Marxist socialism. The fascists were ubernationalists coupling power and racism. IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. A revolution based on perverted ideology will achieve perverted consequences (usually tyranny and blood).

By: George Pal

George Pal — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:59:40 +0000

The most ardent modern romances with ‘revolution’ are by those who hate fighting but love the idea of someone having fought. They’re easy to spot, they’re the ones hawking democracy around the globe and then whistling past the graveyard.

By: Robert Glisson

Robert Glisson — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 14:38:21 +0000

“The correct strategy—which, incidentally, John McCain would have actively pursued had he been elected in 2008—was twofold. First, we should have tried to repeat the successes of the pre-1989 period, when we practiced what we preached in Central and Eastern Europe by actively supporting those individuals and movements who aspired to replace the communist puppet regimes with democracies.” I liked the article before and after the above quote. Not that I disagree with the quote itself; but, how come this is the first time for me to hear that McCain even had a plan or policy and how can I be sure that it is even true? All I ever heard from McCain’s campaign was “More War.” The second recommendation, working on the differences in the Muslim faith, is also good, if the US (or McCain) was even willing to acknowledge that there is such a thing as Muslim Faith and Law.